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Martin Chang
Martin Gene Chang (zh: 张腾晋, pronunced: MAR-TUHN GEE-N CHAR-NG, alternately and more commonly by westerners, MAR-TUHN GEE-N CH-AN-G) is a salaryman who is, at the start of the RP, a worker at Mycroft Holdings, locked in a deaded-than-dead-end job, who supplements his meagre income by teaching the mindsport of Go at the Community Center, and joining Go competitions. He lives at Oceanside Drive Block 43 #05-62, though he visits the Community Center from sunset to near midnight during the weekday. During the weekend, he goes to the mall for grocery shopping in the morning, and will drop by the community center in the afternoon, returning home before sunset. After that, he will go back to the community center to teach. Due to the force of circumstances, he has recently formed a link with a Stray, whom he named Sophia. Personality and Appearance Martin Chang (who prefers to be called "Martin" rather than "Chang" read alternately, which sounds like "Wang") prefers internal monologue over public speaking. His monologue, if one can actually "hear" it, is pretty colorful and expletive-marked. However, he is able to always answer any question thrown at him readily and politely. Thus, to anybody who knows him, he appears "exceedingly polite and humble", which ironically is what he is anything but. Only a handful of close friends know of this fact. He graduated from the public school years ago, and he has a very low opinion of the private school students' at-work abilities despite himself. With the retirement of the teaching Go professional from Japan three years ago, Martin has more or less taken over his mantle and is regarded unofficially as the "local pro" despite never being officially recognised, or registered as one. Martin prides himself in the game of Go, and thus studies the game of Go very diligently in his free time, to the point where he has very little friends surrounding himself; he is considered more an anorak '''to Go, than a '''nerd. He also has a strong online presence, and is ranked within the top 20 on the Go server he frequents. Despite being so obsessed about Go, most of his thoughts on the game is internalised (and likely, lost in his internal sea of swearing) and so he doesn't go around "spouting a Go term every two lines like a f***ing pretender", in his own words. Therefore, to anyone else who doesn't know the Go side of him, he's just a regular dead-end desk job worker. He sports a beard and mustache, but the tidy side of him ensures that he trims it with the shaver frequently so that it does not grow unruly. His hair is of medium volume, and is almost always swept up because he hates getting his eyes irritated by fringe hair. He usually wears light, as appropriate to the seasons; for example, in summer, unless he has lessons to teach, he usually wears nothing more than bermudas and a singlet. Despite his tidiness, he is not very fashion-conscious, and his color matching for clothing is remarkably horrendous; he once turned up to work wearing a dark-purple tie over a light lime-colored shirt and a pair of white long pants. In the Train Blight arc, after forming a bond with the Stray Sophia, he discovered that they are both able to read each others' thoughts to some degree; the revelation actually made him acutely self-aware of his own swearing, as he, influenced by Confucian-styled parenting, felt that swearing in front of children - even supposedly dead ones - is grossly inappropriate. Although this greatly discomforts him, Martin felt he had no choice but to put up with it until the bond expires. Family Martin's parents passed away four years prior to the start of the RP, hence he now owns an apartment fit for about four persons, all by himself. He has other family in the neighbourhood, mostly paternal aunts and cousins; some of his cousins are also avid Go players and are students of the public school. At the start of the RP, his cousins' roles were to act as his eyes and ears to the school's Go club, as well as to the private school's. Abilities Civilian His Go playing skill is very high, and he has only ever lost the bi-annual tournaments on two occasions in the last four years. He has, over the years, developed a very unique ability of drawing parallels between Go and real-life situations. Additionally, his almost slave-like responsibilities working as a salaryman gave him access to a moderate level of programming skills, and better-than-average knowledge of computers in general; presented with programming code, he can quickly decipher its purpose(s) but not replicate its effect. Unlinked Crossers are normally able to see and manipulate ether, but in Martin's case it's a lot different. Since he was young, he could remember things very well - one example being that he managed to tell the police the license plate number of the vehicle that hit him ten years ago, and that he still remembers it to this day - but as he is unaware of his Crosser existence, he attributed it as a gift of God. This is in fact an Enomena-induced capability, and the fact that he only ever utilises it to remember key events means that his Ether supply doesn't run out quickly, and hence he is for the most part not aware of his identity. This fact, plus his incidental Ether color which mirrors the color of his skin, also conceals his Crosser status from anyone but the most sensitive of Ether users, such as Redmist. It is later noted by Hailey that Martin Chang's status as a Concealer made regular detection of his Crosser status extremely difficult by regular Panzer means, which is the reason Noco Berry and the other Panzers initially had problems figuring out Martin's identity. Linked During his encounter with the Train Blight, right after he performed a Bonding Pact with the little-girl Stray Oriole (whom he renames Sophia), his memory ability was expanded to include being able to "see" what he had previously seen; the closest equivalent to describing this would be that he now possesses a memory slideshow ability that he can review in his head. In addition, beings that are directly linked with him through Ether (in this case, Oriole) can see what he sees, but the difference in details is akin to blurry S-Video versus hi-definition 1080p. As a result of this, however, and initially unbeknownst to him, he ends up looking like a freak show complete with spaced-out eyes and constant drooling while doing this, and the more control he exerts on his ability the worse he looks. It is also possible that this ability may be cancelled in the presence of ether cancellers. Since becoming aware of it, however, he has tried to avoid using this ability altogether, preferring to use it when people are not looking and only in short bursts. Recently Discovered During the events of the fifth Arc, Martin accidentally discovers a method to project physical objects using his own Ether. This ability, however, is currently limited to very small objects such as Go stones and pebbles. It is not currently known what else can be thrown with this technique. This technique is independent of his memory abilities so he does not need to cover his face for this technique, but as it is so fresh, the technique itself is crude and unrefined (and coupled with the innate low capacity of Concealers) to the point where just 3 hours of exertion practicing this as-yet-unnamed technique is enough to exhaust Martin thoroughly. Later on, he expanded this ability, still as-yet-unnamed, to a general purpose skill. By controlling bursts of Ether from his legs, he gains a jump that can send him a maximum of ten meters into the air. He can use the same Ether to cushion his drop. Again, this ability is easily cancelled in the presence of Ether cancellers like Mirto , as she quickly demonstrated as possible during a minor altercation. Moves Category:Player Characters Category:Crossers Category:Characters